Woman loses 2L to cyberfraud while trying to book garba pass

Surat: A 23-year-old woman engineer from Surat lost Rs 1.99 lakh to cyberfraud while attempting to book a pass for the garba at Laxmi Vilas Palace.
Maitri Naik, a chemical engineer working for Linde Engineering India Pvt Ltd in Vadodara, had bought the pass through a ticket booking app for Rs 1,412, with the intention of having it delivered to her office on Vasna-Bhayli Road.
On Sept 30, Naik received a notification from the booking service saying the pass could not be delivered due to an incorrect address. She searched online for the customer care number of the courier service concerned and contacted them but got no response.
The next day, an individual claiming to be a representative of the courier service called Naik and instructed her to go online, rectify the address she had provided and pay a Rs 5 fee. The person sent her a link on WhatsApp for the payment.
Subsequently, the alleged customer care representative sent Naik a link to a ‘Customer Support Sign.apk' app, asking her to amend her details. Naik complied with the instructions and entered her information as directed. Her pass was delivered that evening.
On Oct 2, Naik received an email notification about Rs 99,000 being debited from her HDFC account. Shortly after, she received another message indicating that Rs 1 lakh had been withdrawn from her Bank of Baroda account.
Realizing that she had been deceived, Naik contacted the cybercrime helpline on 1930 and lodged a complaint. Based on her complaint, a formal cheating complaint was filed at Ichchhapore police station on Sunday.
Ichchhapore police have begun an investigation.